1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a camera provided with a touchscreen, and more particularly to an electronic camera that takes a variety of actions in accordance with instructions input through a touchscreen.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional electronic camera for recording still images has a control part such as a shutter release and a zoom lever on a camera body. The camera works in response to instructions input through the control part. The conventional electronic camera also has a display part, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), showing captured images at the back of the camera. Thus, the conventional electronic camera is provided with the control part and the display part separately.
In the field of video cameras, Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 9-116792 proposes a video camera having a touchscreen that displays images captured by the video camera and shows icons over the images so that a cameraman operates the video camera by touching the touchscreen on the icons with a finger.
Other cameras are proposed that enable an auto-focus (AF) area and an auto-exposure (AE) area to be designated with a touchscreen (Japanese Patent No. 2,743,551, Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-28390 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-95136).
If, however, the electronic camera is provided with the touchscreen, there is a problem peculiar to the electronic camera. Specifically, the electronic camera that records still images must not only focus and adjust photometry to record the image satisfactorily but also reproduce the high-quality image when the recorded image is reproduced or printed.
In particular, if a cameraman puts emphasis on a certain subject (hereinafter referred as a principal subject) such as a person, the principal subject must be reproduced as a high-quality image. With the use of a printing or reproducing apparatus in a photofinishing laboratory, etc., it is difficult to determine which is the principal subject in the recorded image, and it is impossible to automatically print or reproduce the image while regarding the principal subject as the most important.